Vostok 1

Vostok 1 (Russian: Восто́к-1, Oriente 1) was the first space rocket of the Vostok Program and the first manned space mission of the Soviet space program. The cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man in space with this flight. The spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 12, 1961.

This mission, the first in the Vostok programme, was preceded by two unmanned flights known as Korabl-Sputnik-4 and Korabl-Sputnik-5, which used the Vostok spacecraft for testing and had a flight pattern compatible with a manned mission, although both flights are considered Sputnik missions.

Gagarin's flight consisted of an Earth orbit at an altitude of 315 km. The ship's cargo included life support equipment, radio and television to monitor the cosmonaut's condition.

On this mission, Gagarin uttered his famous phrase "The Earth is blue". Thus the comments of the Soviet media that have the original recording of Yuri Gagarin's words during the mission, he commented: « Here I do not see any God ». However, opponents of the Soviet Union for the bias caused by the impotence of having lost the race of the first man in space began to protest, especially the church, saying in the Western world that there is no recording that proves that Gagarin uttered those words.. Instead, it is wanted to believe that it was Nikita Khrushchev who in a certain context said: "Gagarin was in space, but he did not see any God there ". What is known with certainty is that the cosmonaut said from Vostok 1 when orbiting the Earth: "Inhabitants of the world, let us safeguard this beauty, let us not destroy it".

Living capsule of Vostok 1, used by Gagarin on its first and only orbital flight. Now exposed at the RKK Energy Museum, just outside Moscow.

Context

The space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, the two Cold War superpowers, began just before the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. Both countries wanted to rapidly develop spaceflight technology, particularly launching the first successful manned spaceflight. The Soviet Union secretly carried out the Vostok program in competition with the United States' Project Mercury. Vostok launched several uncrewed precursor missions between May 1960 and March 1961, to test and develop the Vostok family of rockets and space capsule. These missions had varying degrees of success, but the last two (Korabl-Sputnik 4 and Korabl-Sputnik 5) were completely successful, allowing for the first manned flight.

Crew

See also Vostok programme selection and training

The Vostok 1 capsule was designed to carry a single cosmonaut. 27-year-old Yuri Gagarin was chosen as Vostok 1's lead pilot, with Gherman Titov and Grigori Nelyubov serving as reinforcements. These assignments were formally made on 8 April, four days before the mission, but Gagarin had been the favorite among cosmonaut candidates for at least several months.

The final decision of who would fly the mission was largely based on the opinion of cosmonaut training chief Nikolai Kamanin. In an April 5 diary entry, Kamanin wrote that he was still undecided between Gagarin and Titov. "The only thing that prevents me from choosing [Titov] is the need to have the strongest person for the flight of one day." Kamanin was referring to the second mission, Vostok 2, compared to the relatively short single-orbit Vostok 1 mission. When Gagarin and Titov were informed of the decision during a meeting on April 9, Gagarin was very happy and Titov was disappointed. On April 10, this meeting was recreated in front of the television cameras, so there would be official images of the event. This included an acceptance speech from Gagarin.As an indication of the level of secrecy involved, one of the other cosmonaut candidates, Alexei Leonov, later recalled that he did not find out who was chosen for the mission until after the space flight had finished. started.

Course of the mission

On Wednesday, April 12, 1961, at 06:07 universal time (UT), the spacecraft Vostok 3KA-3, better known as Vostok 1, took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Its code name during the flight was Kedr (in Russian кедр, cedar), that is, Siberian pine, the ground operators were Zaryá (Заря, Aurora) and Vesná (Весна, spring).

The flight is known to have lasted 108 minutes in total: 9 minutes to enter orbit and then one orbit around the Earth. The flight was fully automatic, since the control panel was locked, although Gagarin had a sealed envelope with the numerical code in case there was a need to take manual control of the ship. In the meantime, all the pilot had to do was talk on the radio, taste some food—he was the first to eat on board a spaceship—in order to see if a human being could feel and behave normally while sitting on the ground. without gravity. Scientists did not know for sure the effects of weightlessness, and the ship was always under ground control. In case of emergency, it had all the necessary flight instruments for manual landing.

Ground controllers couldn't tell if Gagarin had reached a stable orbit until 25 minutes after launch, just as he was heading towards the unlit side of Earth and leaving the Soviet Union behind across the Pacific Ocean. He crossed the Strait of Magellan at dawn and the vast South Atlantic Ocean at dawn. The ship's automatic system was then activated to align the capsule and fire the recoil rockets thus beginning the descent, while crossing the west coast of Angola, some 8,000 kilometers away from the landing point. During this critical point of atmospheric re-entry, the most serious problem of the flight arose: the ship had to detach from a part if it wanted to re-enter successfully adopting an appropriate orientation, or it would end up turned into a great ball of fire. For 10 uncomfortable minutes, and without being able to act, the capsule rotated violently. The automatic release system had failed and Gagarin's life was in danger. Luckily, with the immense heat generated during the reentry, the anchoring system was weakened and the capsule with Gagarin inside was released. As his descent continued, he crossed the dark forests and mountains of central Africa, then the Sahara, the Nile River, the Middle East, as he continued his descent into the southwest of present-day Russia. Prepared to start the expulsion and already close to the Black Sea, Gagarin got rid of the capsule at 7000 meters above the ground. Strapped to an ejection seat, by means of which he would exit the ship's module after descent, at an altitude of approximately 7 kilometers, Gagarin ended up using his own parachute, as planned, although the USSR has denied this for years out of fear of that the flight was not recognized by international entities, since the pilot did not accompany his ship to the ground.

Due to the problems described, Gagarin did not land in the planned region (about 110 kilometers from Stalingrad, now Volgograd), but in the Saratov province. At 10:20 that day, Gagarin, after being ejected from the Vostok capsule, landed by parachute near the village of Smelovka, about 15 kilometers from the city of Engels. Farmer Anna Tajtárova from a nearby collective farm and her six-year-old granddaughter Rita were the first to find Gagarin. He was wearing a strange orange suit and a white helmet with large red initials, CCCP (the Russian acronym for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). "Did you come from space?" asked the old woman. "Certainly, yes," said the cosmonaut who, to calm the peasant girl, hastened to add: "But don't be alarmed, I'm Soviet."

There were concerns that the space flight record would not be certified by the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI), the world's governing body for standardization and record keeping, which at the time required the pilot to land the craft. The pilot and the Soviet authorities initially refused to admit that he had not landed his spacecraft in order to gain recognition, but the lie was exposed four months later, after Titov's Vostok 2 flight. the FAI, the mission would have been considered an "incomplete" spaceflight. Despite everything, the record was certified and reaffirmed again by the FAI, which revised its rules and recognized that the crucial steps of the launch, safe orbit and return of the pilot had been achieved. Gagarin continues to be recognized internationally as the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth.

Reentry and landing

The Vostok 1 capsule was on display at the RKK Energiya museum. The main capsule, which is seen in the center of this image, is now on display in the Space Pavilion at the VDNKh.

At 07:25 UTC, the spacecraft's automated systems put it in the required attitude (orientation) for retrorocket ingestion, and shortly thereafter, the liquid-fed engine fired for approximately 42 seconds over the west coast off Africa, near Angola, over 8,000 kilometers (4,300 nautical miles) range above the landing point. The perigee and apogee of the orbit had been selected to cause atmospheric reentry due to orbital decay within 13 days (the limit of life support system function) in the event of a retrorocket malfunction. actual differed from the forecast and would not have allowed the descent for up to 20 days.

Ten seconds after the retroignition, commands were sent to separate the Vostok service module from the reentry module (codenamed "little ball" (Russian: шарик, romanization: sharik)), but the team module unexpectedly got attached to the reentry by a bundle of wires. At around 07:35 UTC, the two parts of the spacecraft began to re-enter and experienced strong gyrations as Vostok 1 approached Egypt. At this point, the cables broke, the two modules were separated, and the descent module was installed in the proper reentry position. Gagarin telegraphed "Everything is fine" despite the continuous twists; he later reported that he did not want to "make noise"; since he had reasoned (correctly) that the spins were not mission-threatening (and were apparently caused by the reentry module's spherical shape). As Gagarin continued his descent, he remained conscious while experiencing around 8 g's on reentry. (Gagarin's own report says "more than 10 g").

At 07:55 UTC, when Vostok 1 was still 7 km from the ground, the spacecraft's hatch opened, and two seconds later, Gagarin was ejected. At 2.5 km altitude, the main parachute was deployed from the Vostok spacecraft.

Gagarin's parachute opened almost immediately and about ten minutes later, at 08:05 UTC, Gagarin landed. Both he and the spacecraft landed by parachute 26 km southwest of Engels, in the Saratov region at 51°16′14″N 45°59′50″E / 51.270682, 45.99727.

A farmer and his granddaughter, Rita Nurskanova, watched the bizarre scene of a figure in a bright orange suit and large white helmet parachuting down near them. Gagarin later recalled: "When they saw me in my spacesuit and parachute dragging as I walked, they began to back away in fear. I told them, do not be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who had descended from space and I must find a phone to call Moscow!"

International Day of Human Space Flight

On March 25, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 65/271 "declares April 12 International Day of Manned Space Flight, in which will commemorate each year at the international level the beginning of the space age for humanity, reaffirming that space science and technology make an important contribution to achieving the sustainable development goals, to increasing the well-being of States and peoples, and to ensure that their aspiration to reserve outer space for peaceful purposes is fulfilled".

With the anniversary we want to commemorate each year the beginning of the space age and reaffirm that cosmic science and technology contribute crucially to achieving the objectives of sustainable development and increasing the well-being of States and peoples. It also seeks to sensitize the world to ensure that the aspiration to reserve outer space for peaceful purposes is fulfilled, to persevere in efforts so that all States can enjoy the benefits derived from these activities, and to maintain space as the heritage of the entire humanity.